In case I haven't already talked your ears off over AIM, or otherwise pointed you towards this:
http://www.jonathancoulton.com/This guy's music is fantastic. (No, I'm not calling it the Best Music Ever. I'm just saying I really, really like it. XD ) It's mostly rock, and also...everything else? I've heard him compared to "if Raffi liked to sing bad words every once in a while" and "Tom Lehrer with a guitar and a high fever," among other things. "Geek folk rock" is another one.
A lot of his music is
hilarious. Either because of the subject matter, or because of the lyrics. Or simply because of the juxtaposition of the subject matter and the musical style. (Examples below.) And then there are quite a few songs which are For Serious. The wonderful thing about a lot of his songs is that they're somewhere between the two: humorous or silly, but despite the fact that they're love songs from giant squids, or about a boy who dreams of being a cyborg in the Future, or about fetuses in love, or code monkeys, fractals, un-planets, psychotic girlfriends, and shop-vacs, a lot of them are
poignant. It's like, what if Ray Bradbury could do comedy? Funny in a sad way.
And then you have songs that are just
silly.You can listen to everything
here; it's all there for free but some are easier to get the direct MP3 of than others. If there isn't a direct download link by the song, search the lyrics page's source code for "MP3" and paste the link into the address bar.
You should take a look at
the entire list, to see what else you might like, but here are my personal favorites, in chronological order (from the bottom of the Songs page):
IkeaThe Future SoonSkullcrusher Mountain: This is one of my new favorite songs. I want to learn Flash animation, just so I can make a video for this. I know exactly how I'd storyboard everything. 8D (Even the ending! I wouldn't just repeat one of the chorus sequences...
ninja )
I Crush Everything: It's a love song. Sung by a giant squid.
Mandelbrot Set: This is the best song about math since The Pi Song (in any of its incarnations). No, scratch that. It's
better. (Er, read the lyrics before you play this over the speakers. :
D )
I Feel Fantastic: WHOO! YEAH! HAPPY PILLS FOR EvErYtHiNg!
Womb with a View: A lovely ballad. About two artificial-womb fetuses who are growing next to each other.
Better:
"And you look like the victim of a surgical crime / A little Darth Vader, a little Optimus Prime"Shop Vac: I suppose there's some kind of message in here about the banality of suburban life? I just like the beat and the meedly-meedly guitar solo in there.
Baby Got Back: This is one of a few covers he's done. There's the lyrics, which are
oh my, and the
way it's sung in this version, which is just...
just listen to it. Ahahahaha. There's also the ridiculous mental image I've got now: Coulton's performing outfit (he's currently touring with John Hodgman, advertising a book) is a buckskin shirt and a coonskin cap, and I imagine his stage persona in a shiny black idling Mercedes-Benz outside of a nightclub, making eyes at hot chicks. XD
Someone Is Crazy:
"Is Bitter there? I'd rather talk to her than Disappointed..."Flickr: This one doesn't make any sense at all unless you watch the video he made for it. He just found a bunch of free-use photos on Flickr.com and described their contents. To music.
Dance, Soterios Johnson, Dance: The secret life of morning NPR newscasters.
Chiron Beta Prime: A sci-fi Christmas song!
Re: Your Brains: Another reason I want to learn Flash. This is the G CORP fanthread's new theme song. :
D (Another meedly-meedly solo song! Except I imagine this one being played by a zombie band to a screaming crowd.)
When You Go: This is one of my favorites. It made me cry :
( It's "about the end of a relationship, but not necessarily a romance," according to the corresponding blog entry. Also: it is the only
a capella song in there that I can remember, right now.
Code Monkey: This one got Slashdotted.
The Presidents: When I was in fifth grade, I had (still have!) this book called
Yo, Millard Fillmore! that was a mnemonic for remembering all the U.S. Presidents up to Clinton. Occasionally I'd forget a step. Now, I'm never going to forget. XD
SkyMall: The sad thing is, all the stuff he mentions really is for sale in those catalogs.
First of May: It's
insane, and I love it. (The song, I mean. Not...
eww. It's
cold outside, now! Seriously. D: ) [Warning: explicit lyrics. Well, more like "contains Bad Words," or "contains just one of the Bad Words, but there's a lot of it." This is more out of concern for those of you who play things over the speaker with other people in the room than for your
virgin ears. XD ]
Creepy DollMr. Fancy Pants: This one is just silly.
I'm Your Moon: Another favorite. Charon is singing this to Pluto to make her (him? *shrug*) feel better after being demoted. D'awwww. I like the imagery in the song.
Make You Cry: It's vengeful.
It's perky.Summer's OverI feel obligated to add this...If you like his music; for those of you who are able to, he really likes it when people give him money. One of the reasons for his Thing A Week project (aside from simply providing a reason to write a lot of music) was to see if people would pay for stuff even if he just put it out there for free. From what I've read, it's been working. ...wow that took a while to write! Stupid text box sends you back to the top every time you format anything or add a link. :
(
...also: I'm currently working on a few illustrations for some of the songs.
ninja A lot of them tell a story, so that makes them easier to illustrate.